William L. Stuart

author of The Gemstone Chronicles Series

Submarines

The Black Fox: Run for Your Life by Gordon Bickerstaff – My Review!!

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The Black Fox: Run for Your Life – My Review!!

The Black Fox by Gordon Bickerstaff Cover

A while back, I read the first of Gordon Bickerstaff’s Lambeth Group Thrillers, and gave Deadly Secrets 4 Stars. When The Black Fox: Run for Your Life appeared in my recommendations, I added it to my TBR. Here is my review.

Synopsis (from the author):

Zoe Tampsin is resourceful, smart and Special Forces-trained, but she has been given an impossible mission.

She has to protect scientist, Gavin Shawlens, from assassination by the CIA, and discover the secret trapped in Gavin’s mind that the CIA want destroyed.

As the pressure to find Shawlens escalates – the CIA send Zoe’s former mentor to track her down and her fate seems sealed when he surrounds Zoe and Gavin with a ring of steel. With each hour that passes, the ring is tightened, and the window for discovering Gavin’s secret will shut.

Zoe is faced with a decision that goes against all of her survival instincts. If she is wrong – they both die. If she is right – she will discover the secret and become the next target for assassination.

Run for your life…

What I liked:

As I’ve mentioned in the past, I like thrillers. The Black Fox: Run for Your Life has all the elements for a great thriller. Lots of action, plenty of plot twists, and a large-scale conspiracy blend to make this an excellent read! Zoe is a great character, a believable operative, and her talents are fully on display in the book. Gavin plays a central role as the pair struggle to stay alive and solve the mystery of why the CIA wants him dead. No spoilers from me, so you’ll just have to read this one to find the answers!

What I didn’t like:

I had a couple of complaints about the book. First, Gavin was such a weak persona in this book compared to the first book of the series. Secondly (and admittedly this is personal bias as a former submariner), the submarine parts seemed a bit farfetched.

Overall impression:

The Black Fox: Run for Your Life entertained me from start to finish. With tons of action, good characters, lots of plot twists, and an interesting finish, I enjoyed it. If you like thrillers, try this one! 

My rating:

4.5 Stars (round to 5 Stars)

Connect with Gordon Bickerstaff:

Discover Gordon Bickerstaff and his book on his website and his Amazon Author Page. While you’re visiting, consider leaving a comment or a review. I know Gordon Bickerstaff will appreciate it!

Connect with me:

Find me on Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, and Pinterest. Say hi and let’s connect! If you don’t want to miss a post, please subscribe to the blog!

An AWOL Stardrives: Fleet of Man by Merv Miller – My Review!!

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An AWOL Stardrives: Fleet of Man – My Review!!

An AWOL Stardrives: Fleet of Man by Mervin Miller Cover

As many of my readers know, I spent time in the US Navy running nuclear power plants. I’m also a member of a Facebook group for people who graduated from Naval Nuclear Power School. In that group, I saw a discussion of An AWOL Stardrives: Fleet of Man by Mervin Miller. Mervin Miller is a former Navy Nuke, too, so I decided to check out the book. Read on for my thoughts!

Synopsis (from the author):

The Fleet of Man departed Earth a long, long time in the past. The location of Earth has been lost for nearly as long. Through a series of incidents a single man has stumbled upon clues to the location of this fabled world and begins a quest to find the lost Man Home. His actions trigger consequences beyond his understanding or control.

What I liked about An AWOL Stardrives: Fleet of Man:

I enjoyed the book! The hero, a NewMan, is a Stardrives, meaning he is responsible for the engine on the starship. He gets transferred to another post and discovers a path to the long-lost ManHome. From there, the story gets interesting, especially when he finds a woman. But, no spoilers from me. An AWOL Stardrives: Fleet of Man has cool technology, an intriguing quest, and pretty memorable characters. All told, a good sci-fi read!

What I didn’t like about An AWOL Stardrives: Fleet of Man:

I’ll do my best to avoid spoilers, but a couple of things took me out of the story. First, if there weren’t women, where did the NewMan originate? Secondly, where did the OldMen come from? A few plot holes also detracted from the story, but I can’t tell them without spoilers.

Overall impression:

Mervin Miller’s An AWOL Stardrives: Fleet of Man is worth a look. If you enjoy sci-fi and a different take on space travel and adventures, this is a book for you.

My rating:

4 Stars

Connect with Mervin Miller:

Find Mervin Miller and his books on his Amazon Author Page and his Goodreads page. While you’re there, please consider leaving a comment or a review and let him know your thoughts on his book. Maybe pick up the next books in the series, too!

Connect with me:

Find me on the socials and let’s connect! I’m on Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, and Pinterest. Stop by and say hi! As always, shares and comments are greatly appreciated!

Super Secret Submarines and the Jolly Roger Flag!!

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I recently read a story about the submarine USS Jimmy Carter (SSN 23) returning to its home port in Bremerton, Washington flying the Jolly Roger. Being a former submarine sailor, I took a measure of pride in seeing the picture, and it made me wonder about a couple of things. First, what did the boat do to fly that flag, and, secondly, what happened to its clandestine predecessor USS Parche (SSN 683). Before I go into that, here’s the picture of the Jimmy Carter flying the flag (courtesy of Lt. Cmdr. Michael Smith via DVIDS):

USS Jimmy Carter flying Jolly Roger

USS Jimmy Carter:

What did USS Jimmy Carter do to fly the pirate flag? We probably won’t know for years (if ever). We can speculate based on some of the submarine capabilities. For instance, we know the Seawolf class submarine is incredibly quiet (by some estimates 70 times quieter than the Los Angeles class). We know it has an extra hundred foot section in the hull (called the Multi Mission Platform) and can dive deeper than the Los Angeles or Sturgeon class boats. It can allegedly transport Seal teams and their equipment, tap into underwater communication cables, and much more – none of which can be confirmed.

How does that help us guess at the boat’s mission. Given that the Jimmy Carter is a West Coast submarine, we can speculate that its successful mission involved North Korea.What exactly, we will likely never know as it will be shrouded in secrecy for decades to come. They could have landed SEAL teams for intelligence gathering, retrieved missile fragments from North Korea’s recent launches, or any number of other operations. Whatever they did, in keeping with the submarine force’s legendary silence, we won’t know.

Why the Jolly Roger, though? The practice of flying the pirate flag is a navy tradition signifying a successful mission. According to the Washington Post, the practice began in WWII with the Royal Navy. The article tells us symbols often adorn the flags to reflect what the mission accomplished. Jimmy Carter‘s flag had one or possibly two unidentified symbols on it, which only adds to the mystery. Whatever the mission, Bravo Zulu to the crew for a job well done!

USS Parche:

Now for USS Parche (SSN 683), the super secret Sturgeon class submarine whose mantle USS Jimmy Carter inherited. According to Wikipedia, the Parche is, as of 2007, the most decorated ship in the history of the US Navy. Recipient of 9 Presidential Unit Citations (PUC), 10 Navy Unit Commendations (NUC), and 13 Navy Expeditionary Medals, Parche remains a mystery. Decommissioned in 2004, her sail resides in Bremerton Washington. Note the interesting hull appendage. I wonder what purpose it served…

USS Parche

The Parche‘s preserved sail in Bremerton:

Flag USS Parche sail

Again, according to Wikipedia, Parche recovered Soviet missile fragments and was thought of as a key component of the National Underwater Reconnaissance Office. The book Blind Man’s Bluff claims the submarine tapped into Soviet communications cables during Operation Ivy Bells. Because most of USS Parche‘s missions remain highly classified, these claims remain unsubstantiated. One of my instructors at prototype in Idaho Falls, Idaho, served on Parche. He wore a few of the PUCs and NUCs, but claimed he didn’t know why the boat received the awards.

Based on her decorations alone, Parche deserved to fly the pirate flag, although I don’t know if she did. Regardless, I think it’s only fitting to give USS Parche (SSN 683) a Bravo Zulu as well!

Connect with me:

What do you think earned USS Jimmy Carter (SSN 23) the right to fly the Jolly Roger? Leave me a comment and let me know your thoughts. If you’d rather, drop me an email at bill@williamlstuart.com. Connect with me on social media, too! I’m on Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, and Pinterest. Say hi and let’s talk submarines (or books, nuclear power, writing, etc.)! I always enjoy meeting new friends!

Submarines in Idaho!?!?!?!?… Yep, It’s True!!

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Idaho:

When you think of Idaho, what is your first impression? For me, prototype training in Idaho Falls as a US Navy Nuclear Reactor operator is first thought. For others, skiing, hiking, and amazing vistas come to mind. Still others think of potatoes. Many conspiracy theorists believe the US moon landing was actually filmed at Craters of the Moon National Park and we never set foot on the moon. All those things make Idaho uniquely Idaho. Today I want to tell you about a  Navy facility in the Idaho wilderness. At the facility, engineers experiment with the latest in submarine hull design! Yep, submarines in Idaho!

Submarines in Idaho?

What? Submarines in Idaho? Hey, we once trained to run submarine nuclear power plants in Idaho, so why not? And, it makes sense when you think about the facility. Called the Acoustic Research Detachment (ARD) in Bayview, Idaho, the site, located on the southern end of Lake Pend Orielle, performs research, development, test and evaluation of submarine acoustic stealth technology. Cool, you might say, but why Idaho?

According to Wikipedia, the lake, located in the Northern Idaho Panhandle, and fed by the Clark Fork and Pack Rivers is 43 miles long and 1150 feet deep in places (like near the test facility). At depths below 100 feet, the water is a constant 39F. The lake has a flat muddy bottom, and coupled with little boat traffic at night, makes it a perfect acoustic test location.

Why is this important? Well, as a former submarine sailor, I appreciate the need for silence on boats (yes, submarines are boats and surface ships are ships). While surface ships can operate quietly, stealth is especially crucial for submarines. The ARD helps in the mission.

ARD has its own fleet of submarines. An article by the LA Times says the subs are up to 88 feet long (roughly 1/4 size of a real submarine). The latest model, LSV-2 (large scale vehicle), is about 120 feet.  Cutthroat (LSV-2 modeled on the Virginia class), and Kokanee  (LSV-1 modeled on the Seawolf class) comprise part of the fleet. Rumors say at least 5 others call the site home. I read another article that named the boats. In addition to the boats listed above, the Dolly Varden, Pike, Whitefish, and Steelhead round out the fleet.

Submarines Kokanee LSV-1
Kokanee LSV -1 in water

ARD:

Officially, and according to the Naval Sea Systems Command website, the purpose of ARD is as follows.

These state-of-the-art facilities support a wide variety of research and technology development programs ranging from submarine propulsor development to the calibration of full-scale acoustic transducers. Detachment personnel supporting the experiments form a highly capable and versatile workforce providing ARD customers a timely and quality outcome. They work closely with project scientists, engineers and technicians throughout the Carderock Division and other Navy and private organizations, to plan and conduct operations and experiments on the lake.

The results obtained during past experiments have been extremely valuable to the Navy, especially in the area of submarine propulsor design, sonar dome development, submarine construction cost avoidance, and the development of several critical submarine design features. Future plans include critical support of current and future Navy submarine design in the area of structural acoustics, hydroacoustics, propulsor development, target strength reduction, and related experiments using the unique capabilities of the ARD.  The Large Scale Vehicle-2 (LSV-2), a large model of the VIRGINIA Class submarine, is being used extensively in the area of propulsor research. Large scale buoyant submarine models support testing in the area of submarine structural acoustic and hydroacoustic technology.  Target strength testing is conducted using the Intermediate Scale Measurement System (ISMS), which provides a unique acoustic test capability unsurpassed by any other available facility.

Surface Ships:

The ARD also houses a model of the Zumwalt class of destroyers. Officially the Advanced Electric Ship Demonstrator (AESD), they call the ship Sea Jet. As I mentioned before, surface ships like to be quiet, too, and this facility helps make that a reality.  As every submariner knows, there are only 2 types of ships – submarines and targets. If you are a target rider, quiet can help you, too!

Submarines AESD photo
Sea Jet Scale Ship in Water

Idaho and submarines seems an odd combination, until you look at why they exist. Then it makes perfect sense. Although almost 400 miles from the ocean, ARD makes great contributions to the submarine community. The improvements enhance the safety and effectiveness of US Navy boats. For that, and on behalf of submarine sailors former, current and future, thanks ARD!!

Have you been to Idaho? Maybe visited ARD or Lake Pend Orielle? Maybe prototype like me?  Are you a former submarine sailor? Despite the brutal winters, did you enjoy Idaho? Leave me a comment and let me know!

Connect with me:

Want to connect on social media? Please feel free to contact me on Twitter, Facebook, and Goodreads or just email me at bill@williamlstuart.com!

Nuclear Powered Aircraft – In Dawsonville, GA!?!?

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Nuclear Powered Aircraft!?

Readers of my blog and The Gemstone Chronicles know that I spent a decade in US Navy riding submarines and recruiting. I was trained as a nuclear reactor operator, and still keep up with some of the news in the nuclear world. My lovely and adorable bride, Lana, introduced me to a very cool website atlasobscura.com. While browsing the site, I came across an article on a government research facility from the 1950’s in Dawsonville, Georgia. What does this have to do with submarines or nuclear power? Well, this research facility was used to test the radiation effects on various materials and the surrounding forest in an effort to build a nuclear powered aircraft! The map below, though kind of hard to read, shows the layout of the site.

Nuclear Powered Aircraft Site Map

According to our friends at Wikipedia, the site was the Georgia Nuclear Aircraft Laboratory (or AFP No. 67) and was run by Lockheed. The purpose was to test various military vehicles and the surrounding forest to assess the effects of nuclear war on the environment and wildlife and the do research on a nuclear powered aircraft. The site was closed in 1971 and sold to Atlanta as a potential site of a second airport. The topography wasn’t suitable for an airport, and nature has reclaimed much of the site. Here is a picture of the hot cell building.

Nuclear Powered Aircraft Hot Cell Bldg

With the secrecy surrounding the site, it comes as no surprise that most of the documents about what was done in the forest remains highly classified. And no nuclear powered aircraft came from the work. It does make me wonder, though, if some of the experiments led to materials used on submarines.

The Dawson Forest Site:

I did further research and found a lot of conspiracy stuff (not surprisingly) about the site. I also found claims of animals with interesting deformities and abnormalities. There are alleged sightings of deer with two racks of antlers, albino black bears, and other such creatures. In the research I did, one of the reactors on site was an open air (or naked) reactor that was hoisted into the air while operational and without shielding, allowing the radiation to blast the surrounding forest. Personnel at the site were in underground shielded areas during the open air testing. The picture below shows the site circa 1960.

Nuclear Powered Aircraft GNAL-Circa-1960-Web

The underground facility was supposedly six or seven levels deep, but who knows for sure. When the site closed, the entrance tunnels were collapsed and sealed. One of the remaining visible buildings is the hot cell, which is also sealed and surrounded by barbed wire fencing. The hot cell is where they placed irradiated materials for further study. The building was deemed to be too hot to demolish until the radiation levels subsided more. That might be another 30-50 years…

Today:

The Georgia Department of Natural Resources manages the now public land. There are plenty of hiking and biking trails, and you can kayak down the Etowah River that runs through the site.

As you can imagine, I have to take a trip up there to look around. It isn’t very far from where I live, so maybe next weekend might be a good time to go! When I do, I will be sure to post pics and do a follow-up to this post.

Oh, and just in case you were wondering, we never had a nuclear powered aircraft. The USAF did experiment with a reactor in a plane, but that was to test the shielding for the crew. The reactor never actually powered the engines. I do recall when I was in Idaho in the Navy, there was an experiment going on to convert nuclear power for space travel, though, but I don’t know much more than that.

Connect with me:

It looks pretty cool to me, but what do you think? Leave me a comment and let me know. You can connect with me on social media, too. I can be found on Twitter, Facebook, and Goodreads. You can also send me an email at bill@williamlstuart.com. And, if you don’t want to miss a post (including my follow-up to this one), subscribe to the blog!

Food Blogs and What Authors Can Learn!

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This blog post is a bit of a departure from my usual topics of The Gemstone Chronicles, submarines, unusual and mysterious places, and conspiracy theories. Today I want to talk about food blogs!

Food Blogs

Why food blogs?

As readers of The Gemstone Chronicles know, my lovely and adorable wife Lana has a food blog. It was her foray into the blogging world that prompted me to self-publish my books and embark on my writing efforts. So, I owe food blogs for that inspiration. Besides the inspiration, though, food blogs like Lana’s can teach authors quite a bit.

Food stuffed-turkey-breast-feature-600x480

In the current environment in which we Indie authors exist, we have to be writers, publicists, marketers, social media experts, and many other roles. Such is the life of most bloggers. But, I think food bloggers have a little more to do. What do I mean? Take Lana’s blog for instance. Here is a normal routine for her to get a blog post ready:

  • Decide on the recipe. Will it be a theme or a recipe from her childhood?
  • Purchase the ingredients
  • Do the prep work for the ingredients
  • Cook the dish and photograph each step while cooking
  • Design the photo shoot, get the props arranged, style the food once the cooking is done
  • Set up lighting
  • Shoot the food before it dies (a term that describes the length of time before the food loses its desired appearance)
  • Process the photos
  • Write and edit the copy for the narrative around the recipe
  • Post the blog post, send out to social media and email list
  • Interact with others on social media to promote and market the blog

For authors:

I’m sure I missed a step or two in Lana’s process, but you get the general idea. Now, compare that to what an indie author might do when writing a novel.

  • Decide what to write about
  • Research the book
  • Flesh out characters, plot, and story
  • Write the first draft
  • Either work on a cover or contract it out, but author still has to approve it
  • Rewrites and edits until the book is ready for release
  • Decide on the platform(s) for publishing (Amazon, Smashwords, etc.)
  • Publish
  • Promote, market, and publicize

The processes are very similar, I think, but food bloggers have to do it 2-3 times per week! And there are some extremely successful food bloggers out there. One of the first (and probably the most well-known food blogger) is Ree Drummond, aka The Pioneer Woman. While Lana’s blog isn’t quite a large as Ree Drummond’s, Lana does get almost 2 million hits per year on her site! Compare that with my blog, where I get 15,000 per year (which I am trying to grow), and you see how much more popular her site is.

My plan:

I will be taking a few pages from her book, and using some of her promotional ideas and efforts to see how they translate to my blog. As I am trying to use the blog to help promote my books, I can see how more blog traffic spreads the word about The Gemstone Chronicles. I encourage writers to visit food blogs, study how they write their posts, interact with their readers, and build an audience.

I do caution authors, though, that they have to be sure to be genuine and not just act like sleazy salespeople. Yes, we all want to sell books, but just selling is a turn off. Be real, get to know your readers (of both your blog and your books), and reciprocate with supporters. Read other authors’ books, and write reviews. Tweet, pin, and post the reviews on Facebook and other social networks. When someone posts a review of your book, post it. This gives readers information about your book, but it also recognizes the effort that someone took to produce the review. And remember, you have to be persistent!

Popular food blogs:

Here are some of the food blogs that Lana visits frequently:

I encourage authors to visit food blogs (and other blogs, too). Read over the recipes (and maybe make one or two), leave a comment (even if it is about the writing), and learn from what the bloggers do.

What food blogs to you follow? Have you learned anything from them? Leave me a comment and let me know! And, if you happen to have made a recipe from Lana’s blog, I would be interested to know how you liked it. As chief taste tester, I like to know that people enjoy her dishes as much as I do!

Connect with me:

Connect with me on social media, too. I can be found on Twitter, Facebook, and Goodreads. You can also email me at bill@williamlstuart.com. I look forward to hearing from you. If you don’t want to miss a post, please subscribe to the blog!